


louie acquired insomnia!

by rainbowshoppe



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Trans Louie Duck, Trans Webby Vanderquack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 01:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18201569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowshoppe/pseuds/rainbowshoppe
Summary: webby knows a lot of facts from reading and rereading anything and everything she can get her hands on and hoards them within her room and her mindlouie worries written words may matter more to her than his own





	louie acquired insomnia!

**Author's Note:**

> a good ol emotional hurt/comfort btwn my fav pair up in th tqt bc this is how i thrive
> 
> fun fact: i wrote this while also writing th other dt fic i just hardly posted and also drawing at the same time and it was just as terrible as it sounds, but i had fun and thats what matters

"Which one of you is the evil triplet?"   
  
Huey and Dewey point to him without a second thought and chorus, "Louie," like it's a practiced thing. He shrugs and gives an (actually practiced) noncommittal noise, and does his best to keep up the uninstreded look while be becomes hyper aware of Webby. She pauses for just a second, but with the speed she's been going at since her questionnaire started, it's enough to make Louie worry.  
  
He tunes out the girl's prying questions for a moment and takes the worry seed and buries it deeply inside of himself, making sure it has no sun or water to grow. He wants it to suffocate in the dirt, be reduced to a sad thought that dredges up whenever he passes by the plot, but just as quickly disappears when he moves on to the next. When he focuses back in the now to see Webby staring through him like she'd witnessed the whole thing herself, he remembers worry seeds don't need sun or water. All they need is a bit of doubt.  
  
Louie does absolutely everything he can to avoid Webby for a solid week. He knows after using up nearly every excuse in his book that his siblings have caught on, which means Webby  _definitely_ knows. There's no way she knows he's nearly at the end of his rope but it's not difficult to tell when one out of three always seems to be anywhere where you're not. He suddenly feels awful and hopes very hard he hasn't hurt her feelings. The sprout in him grows a couple inches.  
  
Originally when they'd come here, Louie's plan was to try and take bits and ends and quietly sell them off at the local pawn shop, certain in the fact he could pay the cashier to keep quiet about it. Nothing  _too_ expensive and nothing that'd be missed. Definitely nothing that had obviously been gathering dust for years. Only things that could reasonably be shrugged off if they were suddenly missing. The golden rules of any con, don't get in over your head and don't do anything you can't compensate for. He'd make sure to keep a low profile and if the worst  _did_ come to pass, he'd long since decided that no matter how lazy he was he'd be willing to work the same hours as his Uncle if it meant the overworked duck could live lavishly, if even for a moment.  
  
Webby had thrown a wrench in that. She threw many, actually. Like, she threw in a whole box and a half that'd she'd been saving for this very moment. Part of him can't find it within himself to blame her for it. She was curious and observant and obviously hadn't talked to a kid her age or otherwise in ages. If collecting extensive knowledge of the McDuck family was how she spent her downtime, Louie couldn't begrudge her that. It reminded him of Huey and Dewey in a sense. The eldest always had his Junior Woodchuck guidebook on hand, able to recite most of it from memory while the hyperactive middle child would force himself to sit and make short and concise lists, lest he forget what was making him so excitable that day. Webby was like a mix of it, able to retain the knowledge but also writing it down and keeping it somewhere she'd never lose it. It was hard for him to see parts of his siblings in her and feel mad at her,  
  
But it wasn't impossible. A good chunk of him was  _seething_. He'd stay up at night, curled up around a pillow in the far corner of the lowest bunk and rock back and forth, brooding. It made him beyond upset but he couldn't stop even as the end of the week grew near and his already prominent bags became deeper. That made him angry too, the fact he started to look like his Uncle after a particularly bad string of jobs. That in turn made him even angrier, his whole scheme to slowly yet surely siphon whatever money he could from Scrooge and add it to Donald's account all turned to smoke because he was so out of his element. He'd always been an easy crier, but Louie tries his best to muffle himself as not to disturb his siblings. He only fails once, and they don't talk about it. They just hold him and let him cry until he's too exhausted to stay conscious.  
  
The rest of him is just scared. Terrified, horrified,  _mortified_ at what the repercussions of telling Webby would be. He fears the worst, he fears the  _actual_ worst, and he fears the best. He could tell her and she could try to correct him with disgusting medical knowledge that he's more than sure she knows, the worst. She could get that strange look in her eye and be all weird about it, asking him invasive questions (well, more so than already,) and go tell Scrooge, wondering why he hadn't told her. That's the actual worst, he thinks. Scrooge was ancient and rich and already probably planning to kick them all back to the marina the second he could. He'd probably utter every slur in the book and then some and speed the eviction process up tenfold. Louie wouldn't ever forgive himself if he ruined something like this for them over something much more trivial. (Something in him screams it's one of the  _least_ trivial thing about him and he snuffs it before it can do any damage. It turns out worry trees look a lot like pines. He hates it.)  
  
The best, and most unrealistic in his opinion, is Webby just taking his words at face value and fixing her library of McDuck historia without further fuss. Webby was a girl who, as far as he'd seen (which admittedly wasn't much), never did anything simply. She had a plan for almost any turn and one question would hold at least five more, and that was bare minimum. He tries to imagine her just nodding and being completely fine with it and end the questioning then and there, and it's near futile. He can get as far as her nodding before she bursts into uncontained uncomfortable inquiries. He pulls his legs up from where they were stretched out on the couch to his chest and buries his face in them. The duck groans, unsure of what to do. It's all a lot and very hard to think about for a 12 year old. He's normally better at thinking, but he's never had to go against stakes that could harm his entire family. Louie stomps very childishly on the cushion he's sat on and grumbles again, louder just because he can. He doesn't hear the footsteps approaching.  
  
"...Louie?" there's a hesitance in Webby's voice, and Louie snaps his head up so fast his neck hisses at him for it. He must look like a deer in headlights, because she backs up a bit, arms held up in a placating matter.   
  
"Hey, it's just me," she smiles. It's wobbly.  
  
Louie opens his mouth, and closes it again. Suddenly there are pine needles choking him and preventing his words from happening in any capacity. (Distantly he thinks the whole tree metaphor has gone a bit far, but it's what his mind's been supplying him for a week now and it's all he can really use at the moment.) Webby must take his silence as a good thing somehow, because she drops her hands and her smile straightens out a bit. She moves to the other end of the sofa, points to it and gives Louie a questioning look. He nods, near imperceptible and is sure anyone else but Webby would've missed it. She sits, turns to him and mirrors his position. She looks a lot less owlish than he's sure he does, though.  
  
They sit in silence for a while. Louie can't take his eyes off her, a little afraid he's in some nightmare and if he does all his worst fears will immediately drown him. Webby doesn't seem concerned by this, but she looks everywhere besides him, tugging at the end of her skirt. It looks like she's thinking and trying to remember a lot, if that chart he'd seen online that one time was anything to go by. Finally, she closes her eyes and takes a breath before fixing her gaze at him and immediately glancing to his right.  
  
"You've been avoiding me," is what she says. Her tone isn't clipped but it's very matter of fact. It sounds unnaturally formal. Louie finds he can't care about drowning anymore, and looks as far as he can from her without turning his head. He gives a short nod and wills the tears that threaten his eyes back in. Louie's never been good with confrontation.  
  
"Your reasoning is understandable, but very...dumb." Louie blinks. He looks back at her and she looks like she didn't mean to say that, mouth slightly ajar and blinking herself. She shakes her head and returns to looking over his shoulder.  
  
"Not what I wanted to say, but alright. Sorry, I've had this all scripted out since I realized you were but it's all blanking on me now, ha!" It's a very nervous kind of laugh and suddenly any and every piece of formality is stripped away from her voice. Louie visibly relaxes some, and Webby gives him another shakey smile.  
  
"It's just...I don't know. Maybe if you'd given your girl a chance before bolting everytime you saw her, you'd get to know she was trans too?" Webby grins hopefully and looks directly at him then, and Louie can almost physically feel the lingering effect that punch to his gut left. There's about a million and one ways he'll be able to overanalyze that sentence later, but all he can grasp at the moment is a very weak, "...too?" Webby beams and chuckles a bit and it's the most genuinely happy he's seen her in the week he'd been here.  
  
"I may not be the most socially adept, Louie, but when your brothers-"   
  
"Siblings," he interupts, mostly out of habit. She raises her eyebrows a bit, but presses on.  
  
"When your siblings consistently do their best to refer to you as 'Louie, who's a boy,' there's not much else to take from that. They didn't say that  _exactly_ of course, but I'm no stranger to subtly implying I'm not whatever the doctors said I was." Webby scowles at her mention of doctors and Louie wonders how he went from fearing her to relating to her in the span of a couple minutes. She fixes her expression and plops her feet on the cushions.  
  
"I mean, I get it! Well, no I don't, not exactly. I just told Granny one day and she never let anyone treat me anything but good about it, so I've never been afraid to tell anyone else. But I understand how it  _can_ be scary, especially if you're telling someone with a personal compendium on your entire family. Oh, speaking of which, I fixed it up a couple days ago, also!" Webby pats at her knees and bobs a bit. "It took a while but it gave me an excuse to read through everything again, so it was fun, all in all!"  
  
Louie's at a loss for words, really. He fully loosens up and tucks his legs under himself. Webby hums. It's a weird little tune but Louie can't find himself bothered by it. He looks everywhere except for her as he gathers his thoughts. The triplet stares at different spots on the wall and fiddles with his hoodie sleeves.  
  
"So...does...does Scrooge know?" He mumbles Scrooge's name like he's afraid the mere mention of the old duck will summon him. Webby nods and goes, "Yeah!" at the same time. "Granny told him if he ever misgendered me she'd be the first and last to know," she laughs. Louie feels respect and fear about the woman crop up in equal parts.   
  
"So he's like, okay with it? He didn't like, I don't know...threantoputyououtoranything?"  The boy's shoulders tense as he rushes out the last piece of his question, voice increasing in octave. He's well aware that his cheeks are tinged red and it takes everything in him not to retract statement. This is something he's gotta know.  
  
"Huh?" If Webby notices how embarrassed he is for asking, she doesn't sound it. Louie risks a glance to see she doesn't look it either, head tilted and features contorted in confusion. He sighs heavily.  
  
"He didn't want you gone or...or say anything bad to you or anything like that?" Webby looks shocked.  
  
"Mr. McDuck would never! He's not like that, Louie!" She sounds like she's a little mad on his behalf, but the fervor gone when she speaks again. "Your great uncle isn't gonna  _get rid of you_  for being trans, Louie." Her voice is very soft.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Yeah!" she exclaims, all softness replaced with conviction. "And honestly if he even tried to I think Granny might beat him into oblivion." The addition catches Louie so off guard he barks out a laugh before he can think twice about it. Webby seems proud she's made him do something besides be anxious about the situation.  
  
They sit in another bit of quietness for a few moments, this one much more comfortable than the last. Webby rocks back and forth into the corner of the seat and pats her hands rhythmically at her side. Louie lets what the girl's said fully wash over him.  
  
"...thanks, Webby," he speaks finally. She flashes him a smile and hops off the sofa. Well, it's more like she gathers every bit of strength she has and springs off of it at full force, complete with a dive roll. It's pretty impressive, actually.  
  
"Anytime!" she says happily, picking herself up. "Now, me, Dewey and Huey were plannin' on finding something to do today. You wanna join?" Webby turns back towards him and reaches an arm out. Her stance is unwavering but there's hints of uncertainty in the offer, like she's afraid he'll just go off and continue to ignore her after all of this. Louie finds himself smiling for the first time in a while.  
  
"You know what?" He slips off the couch and takes her hand. "I think I will."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i love you!  
> i love comments but please no criticism, positive or otherwise! ;w;  
> fun fact 2: i really almost wrote this in its entirety before finishing the first one bc i actually had this one thought through entirely before starting, unlike th other one jgfhdfk  
> note notes:  
> \- louie isnt a fan of pine trees. the leaves bother him since they're not Leaves leaves and they feel terrible to step on  
> \- webby talks very formally when shes scripted something out and when shes in a serious situation. she got it from her grandma and its remnants of when she used to talk like that all the time  
> \- webby actually updated the historia right after scripting her piece which is why it blanked on her, she was too caught up in rererereading to remember to reread the script  
> \- louie isnt like, a Thief. like he Is but he doesnt consider his reasons amoral so hes not really. like a robin hood. he doesnt just steal for the hell of it. still its for the best he didnt go through with his plan bc scrooge is old but not stupid & he wouldve been found out before long  
> \- Scrooge McDuck Says Trans Rights!


End file.
